In 2004, the Land Titles Ordinance (Cap. 585) (LTO) was enacted to replace the deeds registration system with a title registration system, aiming to provide better assurance and greater certainty of title and simplify conveyancing procedures as land titles will be conferred by registration. Entering 2025, the Land Registry, under the Development Bureau, put forward the proposal of implementing title registration on “newly granted land” (“New Land First” proposal) as one of the options.

As a lawmaker who has been following up on the progress of the proposed amendments to the LTO, I expressed my views on a Panel on Development Meeting on Friday:

1)    It is not uncommon for advance economies (such as the Chinese mainland, Singapore and the United Kingdom) to replace the deeds registration system with a title registration system as deeds decay and become obsolete. The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government underwent such an attempt to propose title registration back in 2004 but, two decades later, it seems that the unfulfilled attempt might have been overly optimistic for full-fledged implementation. No one on the then Land Title Bills Committee still serves as a member of the Legislative Council.

2)    For the good of a robust administrative system and social well-being, the Development Bureau should be determined to push through an efficient property registration system after assessing actual and potential conflicts of interest in the stakeholders being consulted and formulating its own views.

3)    While the “New Land First” proposal indicates a step forward, it is not ideal that the 2.9 million existing property registrations (“Old” land) are left undealt with. A roadmap must be developed to deal with property registration concurrently for both “Old” and “New” land while the “New Land First” approach is being put forward.

4)    As such, the administration is expected to take a staged and measured approach paying due regards to competing, and possibly conflicting, interests being addressed by stakeholders.

5)    Given the plenty of references that underwent the transition (as mentioned in 1), it is necessary that the Development Bureau reports further on Panel of Development meetings on the effective measures other jurisdictions have adopted in the transition process, for instance, by setting up a dedicated registrar office/vetting committee to inspect title deeds for transitioning as many deeds registrations into title registrations and as soon as possible.

Property stands as a vital position in social well-being and a significant element of the business environment in Hong Kong. I will closely watch the progress as the Development Bureau takes forward the proposed amendments to the LTO.

The author is a member of the Legislative Council from the Election Committee Constituency.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.